ISA+2012+Session+13

This page and its discussion part is reserved for preparation, virtual conducting and post - Conference commenting and planning of RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management (host committee) session =**600 Social justice and democratization through participation and/or self-management?**= during **// ISA Forum of Sociology 2012 Social Justice and Democratization Buenos Aires, Argentina August 1 - 4, 2012 //**

NB 456 (Faculty of Economics) RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management (host committee) Language:English, Spanish
 * Friday, August 3, 2012: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM**
 * Session Organizer: Vera VRATUSA, University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia **


 * SCHEDULE**:

[|599.1] Friday, August 3, 2012: 2:30 PM, Faculty of Economics, TBA
 * Candela HERNáNDEZ, IIGG-CIN, Argentina **candeher@gmail.com

Con la crisis social iniciada a principios de siglo se difundió la recuperación de empresas por sus trabajadores como una forma de enfrentar el cierre de las fuentes laborales. La “toma” u “ocupación” de la unidad productiva, fue la modalidad de acción colectiva emblemática en la lucha por obtener la tenencia y reiniciar la producción bajo gestión de los trabajadores. En este sentido, se pretende indagar las valoraciones que tienen los trabajadores integrantes de empresas recuperadas acerca de estas formas de acción colectiva, que desbordan los mecanismos institucionales de procesamiento de los conflictos. ¿En qué medida la “toma” u “ocupación” es valorada como forma de acción colectiva? ¿Es estimado positivamente que otras identidades recurran a la toma como modalidad de acción colectiva, en pos de llevar adelante sus prácticas autogestivas? ¿Cuáles son los criterios de justicia que subyacen a las distintas valoraciones? La hipótesis de trabajo sostiene que la valoración positiva de “la toma” u “ocupación” como forma de acción colectiva, está asociada directamente a la participación en el proceso de recuperación y la intensidad del conflicto involucrado en el mismo. Para cumplir con el objetivo propuesto, se utilizaran registros realizados en 17 empresas recuperadas de CABA, durante el periodo 2010-2011 en las que se indagan valoraciones y percepciones de la acción colectiva.
 * [|Acción colectiva y autogestión]** (Oral Presentation)

[|599.2]Friday, August 3, 2012: 2:35 PM Faculty of Economics, TBA
 * Vanessa Moreira SíGOLO, Universidade de São Paulo - USP, Brazil **vanessa.sigolo@gmail.com

El articulo problematiza la relación entre Estado y sociedad en la democracia contemporánea, ydiscuteel significado político de las experiencias de autogestión actuales. Después de más de dos décadas de apertura política en diversos países latino-americanos, esas sociedades mantienen altos niveles de desigualdadsocio-económica, pobreza yviolencia, que indicansus limites en laconstrucción de sociedades efectivamente democráticas. En Brasil y en otros países de América Latina, en los años 80 y 90, son creadas diversas organizaciones económicas colectivas, que se denominan autogestionarias: fábricas y empresas recuperadas por los trabajadores, cooperativas y otros emprendimientos de carácterasociativo, de prestación de servicios, producción artesanal e industrial, en diversos sectores, en el campo y la ciudad, por mujeres y hombres desempleados, envías de perder sus empleos o en ocupaciones precarias e informales. Esas experienciassurgenenun contexto de reestructuración productiva, relacionada a las transformaciones tecnológicas, la mundialización y financeirización de la economíaya lasconsecuentesmudanzasy precarizaciónen el mundo del trabajo. En elámbito político, surgen en un contexto de revisión de proyectospolíticos revolucionarios, a partir de la experiencia delllamado socialismo real, y de la crítica a modelos centralizados, burocráticos e autoritarios.En ese texto, busca-se tratar del tema de la autogestiónen el debate sobre políticay participación, por una perspectiva teórica que//amplia// //el// //conce////p////to de política//yinvestiga la relación entre produccióny democracia//.// Con base en el debate académico crítico sobre los significados y limites de las experiencias participativas, la mirada histórica sobre la participación popular y elanálisis de algunas experiencias actuales, busca-se destacar la relevancia de las experiencias autogestionarias en el contexto de disputa de los //sentidos d////e l////a democracia.//
 * [|Democracia, participación popular y experiencias de autogestión en Brasil actual]** (Oral Presentation)

[|599.3] Friday, August 3, 2012: 2:40 PM Faculty of Economics, TBA The paper aims to bring evidence that the solidarity economic undertakings, based on voluntary association, productive cooperation and self-management, employ a singular rationality, different from the capitalistic one. Due to this, the solidarity economy can be considered an alternative to generate income, face poverty and break the social logic of inequalities, since it promotes the protagonism of the poor, needed by political interventions in this field to achieve efficiency and generate decent work. The paper discusses this subject by analyzing evidences brought up by qualitative researches and by the final data of the first Brazilian national mapping of Solidarity Economy. Comparing the general characteristics of Brazilian companies registered in the national statistics with the solidarity economy enterprises, certain singularities stand up, such as the tendency of the solidarity enterprises to protect jobs and hold equalitarian principles regarding income and benefits arising from their economic activities. Despite their weaknesses and limitations, these experiences reveal the existence of a particular associative kind of entrepreneurship, guided simultaneously by economic and social objectives. This provides convincing empirical arguments as to adopt a specific approach about the entrepreneurship in the context of the solidarity economy and, under certain aspects, in the broader context of the small enterprises. The paper underlines that the role played by self-management and cooperation must be considered, as it leads to an alternative model, contrasting from the conventional patterns in terms of understanding and fullfiling the needs of the popular economy and its capacity to generate income and welfare. Draft of the full paper:
 * Luiz Inácio GAIGER, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil **gaiger@unisinos.br
 * [|The uniqueness of solidarity entrepreneurship in the fight against social exclusion]** (Oral Presentation)

[|599.4] Friday, August 3, 2012: 2:45 PM Faculty of Economics, TBA One significance of self-determination is that it can reduce reliance on the market and the state as an organizing mechanism. The benefits in essence derive from intrinsic motivation, that is, autonomy, versus external motivation, that is heteronomy. This paper builds on self-determination using networks as a broader organizing mechanism, where horizontal linkages connect emerging movements for change. Positive ecology is proposed as underpinning both these concepts, in terms of socio-ecological synergies, where satisfying our own needs for psychological health serendipitously coincide with the needs of others and the environment. Building systems involving positive ecology, and that directly address self-determination, based on people forming quality social relationships with others via networks of many loose and strong ties, allows less reliance on political-economic systems that tend to reduce opportunities for self-determination, and replace intrinsic motivation with external controls. The testing and tempering of ideas through deliberative democracy is an additional concept important to this vision. This paper links the micro (in terms of self-determination theory), the meso (in terms of social development) and the macro (in terms of deliberative democracy and sustainable society). It contends that alongside self-deter-determination, inequality is the main issue to be addressed in building sustainable systems, for which participation is important first step. Finally this paper will investigate community initiatives in North-West Tasmania for their potential to further self-determination, deliberative democracy and ideas of positive ecology.
 * Robin KRABBE, University of Tasmania, Australia **rkrabbe@westnet.com.au
 * [|Self-determination, deliberative democracy, networks and positive ecology via community initiatives in tasmania, Australia]** (Oral Presentation)

[|599.5] Friday, August 3, 2012: 2:50 PM Faculty of Economics, TBA This study analyses how an interest-free cooperative bank is operating and its advantages. Qualitative data is collected in form of unstructured interviews and direct observation to conduct a case study of an alternative bank JAK Members Bank in Sweden, running an interest-free loan and savings system for individuals and small companies and associations. Cooperative enterprises have been democratically owned and controlled by their members and have taken economic and social responsibility for the development of local societies for the benefits of the members and the society. Our research shows that JAK- Members Bank creates relations with the members by communicating their value base as a cooperative organisation. They get advantage to attract new members by stressing democratic management and members´ sovereignty, educating members, involving young people, networking with people and organisations globally and using mouth to mouth marketing. For the cooperative bank we can see an enlargement of the market and members participation and also need for innovations. New entrepreneurial activities face difficulties because of lack of financial resources. The study contributes to the literature of cooperative financial sector, by presenting a model of successful operation of JAK. We recommend managers to develop networks with members and other stakeholders to promote cooperative financial banking activities in the local economy. Draft of the full paper:
 * Maria FREGIDOU-MALAMA, University of Gävle, Sweden **Maria.Fregidou-Malama@hig.se
 * [|WHAT ARE the advantages of JAK members BANK?]** (Oral Presentation)

Proposed abstracts of papers of colleagues who **unfortunately could not come** to Buenos Aires: llambiluis@gmail.com
 * Luis LLAMBí**, Anthropology, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, Caracas, Venezuela
 * PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS AND STATE RESTRUCTURING PROCESSES IN VENEZUELA: Democratizing the Rentier State?**

Until recently the literature on participatory democracy was marked by a general optimism about what some institutional innovations could achieve in terms of a socially inclusive, economically efficient, and empowering public policy perspective. In Latin America, in particular, there is an increasing demand for fuller guarantees to democratic participation in public policy decision-making as the result of ingrained structural inequalities in accessing to justice, social services and income. Recently, however, the academic literature has focused more on the real conditions in which different forms of participatory governance have evolved at both the national and sub-national levels, instead of debating the strength and weaknesses of abstract principles of participation. Venezuela is currently living an ambiguous and contradictory social and political process. Different trends point towards democratization of power and wealth. Formerly excluded sectors of the population are more aware of their rights, and there are policies that try to improve their ability to meet basic needs and expectations. But other trends point in the opposite direction; and, in particular, the lack of mechanisms to assess these new institutional innovations at both levels). Besides, by contrast to other Latin American countries, oil wealth is key to understand both the structural continuity and ongoing restructuring processes between the current political regime and those that preceded it. The paper is guided by two main objectives. First, to describe and analyze the political processes that have resulted in changes in the nature of the Venezuelan state in recent years, with a commitment to avoid an uncritical acceptance of the skewed ideologically-based readings of them. Secondly, to analyze the links between these institutional innovations at both (national and sub-national) levels. Besides the introduction and the conclusion, the paper is structured into three parts. Part one is dedicated to craft some of the basic theoretical and normative concepts to understand these processes. Part two sets the scene by situating the 1999 Constitution, followed by a brief description of its implementation processes during the 1999-2011 period. Part three makes up the core of the paper. Its first section is dedicated to analyze Venezuela´s state restructuring processes and participatory institutional innovations at the national level during the period of analysis. This is followed in section two by an assessment of similar innovations at the sub-national levels. Finally, in section three, the links between the institutional innovations at both levels of analysis are assessed. The paper concludes with some brief comments on the normative implications stemming from these analyses, again focusing in the Venezuelan case.

anaaneri@gmail.com
 * Ana Amélia NERI**, Physical Education, Brasília University, Brasília/DF, Brazil
 * Participación y democracía en programas sociales brasileños: El programa deporte en la comunidad**

A partir de 2003, en Brasil, las políticas públicas de carácter social han avanzado en términos de participación política. En esta comprensión, el trabajo tiene la intención de entender como los principios de la democracia participativa reverberan el marco de las políticas públicas en materia de deporte y ócio en Fortaleza/Ceara/Brasil en el periodo (2005-2008) – teniéndose el caso del Programa Deporte en la Comunidad. Para tanto se hizo una investigación con enfoque cuantitativo con una muestra de 140 sujetos que participan en el programa. Los datos obtenidos en el cuestionario fueron procesados y analizados mediante estadística descriptiva con el apoyo del programa computacional SPSS versión 15.0. Los resultados apuntan que el "acceso" al programa es limitado en relación con la inserción en las actividades de los adultos, especialmente mujeres, y por la inestabilidad en el funcionamiento de los núcleos. Sobre la consolidación de la "democratización", se destaca la existencia de importantes canales de diálogo con la comunidad, que a pesar de tomar una configuración pequeña y limitada en relación al cumplimiento de las exigencias del deporte y ocio de las comunidades beneficiadas, plantea la posibilidad de construcción de un modelo alternativo de intervención gubernamental en el sector del deporte y ocio en la ciudad de Fortaleza-Ceará-Brasil. Al final puede afirmarse como conclusión que la intervención del gobierno sirve a la población, pero no garantiza autonomía. En el cuadro del programa hay dos límites para la consolidación de la "participación política": la forma como el gobierno se estructura, la cual presenta la ineficacia de sus instituciones y la burocracia en relación y la falta en las comunidades de las prácticas participativas, que de alguna manera suelen impedir el avance del debate sobre la soberanía popular de las comunidades.

walker@soc.ucla.edu
 * Edward WALKER**, Sociology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
 * Democratizing inequalities: Understanding the limits of the new public participation**

The Left’s concern with increasing citizen voice has combined with the Right’s critique of bureaucracy to bring about deeper and more intensive participation today. Opportunities to “have your say” proliferate at an exponential rate. Given the combination of new technologies, flexible organizations, and a supportive policymaking context, many believe that we now hold the keys to large-scale democratic revitalization through what can be called the “New Participation.” Yet at the same time modern societies face multiple structural problems that limit potentials for true democratization. Vast inequalities of wealth, income, and organization exist both within and across nations, and, in the U.S. context, have been expanding dramatically since the 1970s. Political polarization has accompanied this. Corporate power has been transformed through the decline of managerialism and its replacement by shareholder capitalism, while companies have expanded their reach into civil society through new methods of mobilizing the public as a lobbying force. The public sector is increasingly squeezed by ballooning deficits. How should we understand the New Participation given this context? Based upon the insights of the Democratizing Inequalities research group ([|www.DemocratizingInequalities.com]), this paper develops a theoretical understanding of the connection between expanding inequalities and the development of new forms of sponsored public engagement.

ake.sandberg@sociology.su.se
 * Åke SANDBERG**, Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
 * Neoliberal strategies of privatization, and emerging self-managed cooperative in Sweden**

The paper discusses the ongoing radical privatization within the public sector with a focus on the health care sector, including care of the elderly. The conservative governments efforts on national and local level are analyzed and the consequences for costs, quality of services and working condtions. Emrging alternatives in the form of self-managed cooperatives are presented.

Chair:Vera VRATUSA, University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia, Cika Ljubina 18-20,Belgrade, 11000,Serbia Phone Number: + 38111 - 3282-141 Fax Number: + 38111 - 2639 356 Email: vvratusa@sezampro.rs or vvratusa@f.bg.ac.rs URL: http://veravratusaesociology.wikispaces.com/ Dear colleagues, Unfortunately I will not be able to meet any of you in person this August. Practically until today I hoped that miracle would happen and I would find the sponsor for the airplane ticket, but miracle did not happen. My only consolation is the existence of the internet subpage of our ISA RC10 Internet Forum at http://isarc10internetforum.wikispaces.com/ISA+2012 with potential or already active sub-sub pages for all sessions, where all interested can participate in discussion of themes of common interest whether they were able to come to Buenos Aires or not.

There should be no problems for chairing our session **600 Social justice and democratization through participation and/or self-management?****, since there are not only colleagues who consented to help chairing this session unofficially due to their other engagements during the ISA 2012 Forum, but all participants of this session who do come, can excellently perform this function on the spot. My optimism is based on the fact that nobody objected to the proposal that this session’s format should observe the principle** a “minimum of monologues and maximum of dialogues”. The original **planning was made when we had 9 panelists** which should have restricted her or his paper presentation to half of the available session time (9*5min), leaving the other half for discussion on the spot concerning key qualitative common issues raised by panelists and interested audience. At this moment only five panelists registered, leaving **4 minutes more** for the rest of five panelists if they come. The only problem could arise because of the fact that we did not realize the proposal that we exchange the working versions of full papers before the Conference, in order to use the time there for dialoguing face to face what is not already available in a written form.  For the sake of all those who could not come, I do hope that those who did come will find time and energy to report in discussion thread Commenting drafts and complementary finalizing full papers at @http://isarc10internetforum.wikispaces.com/message/view/ISA+2012+Session+13/50536934 what were the main conclusions of the discussion on the spot and what answers were proposed to questions posed before the Conference. I also hope that both those who participated in Buenos Aires in person and those who did not, will report in the discussion thread Post - ISA Forum 2012 common collaborative projects at @http://isarc10internetforum.wikispaces.com/message/view/ISA+2012+Session+13/50537158, whether ISA 2012 Forum inspired them to combine our forces in common research and/or publication projects.

Until virtual dialoguing, all the best Vera